The Significance of 144,000

Revelation 11: The Two Witnesses - Part 13

A Short Synopsis of Persecutions & Massacres of French ‘Gospellers’ in the 16th Century

1523-24

[N.B. The following excerpt is taken from British Barrister, Henry Bower’s 1894 publication, The Fourteen of Meaux. Bower used both original and authoritative French sources for his translation.]

“Jean LeClerc, a wool-comber or carder, had been punished by the Parlement for a placard posted in 1523 on the Cathedral door at that town, denouncing the Pope as Antichrist. His mother, who was present at his flogging and branding cried out, ‘Vive Jesus Christ et ses enseignes’ [‘Long live Jesus Christ and His standard-bearers’]. Afterwards, while living as a carder at Metz where he actively propagated his views, he left town one night to the place in the neighborhood where a solemn [Roman Catholic religious] procession was to come the next day. There he destroyed the images. When charged with this crime, he confessed it, and announced that Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, should alone be adored. After suffering extreme and brutal tortures, during which he sang from the 115th Psalm, Their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands, etc., he was at last burnt to death.”

1545
“The Mérindol massacre took place in 1545, when Francis I of France ordered the Waldensians of the village of Mérindol to be punished for dissident religious activities. Provençal and Papal soldiers killed hundreds or even thousands of Waldensian [Vaudois] villagers” (Source).

A particularly gruesome, detailed account may be found here.

1546
[N.B. The following excerpt is from Bower’s translation of Jean Crespin’s Actiones et Monimenta Martyrum, 1560.]

“Among the many cities of the kingdom of France, which were by the word of God made sharers and partakers in heavenly grace, the town of Meaux [pronounced ‘MO’] should be given first place. Very few communities will be found which, though under the tyranny of Antichrist, so great faith was shown in proclaiming the truth of God’s word; such zeal and fervor in its acceptance; such vigor in its growth; and where, after a rapid expansion, it was established and defended with so much firmness……The knowledge of the Gospel was propagated far and wide…..To some it came as the sweet breath of life, while others found it a stumbling block and offence. However, in this church the seed sown began to flourish daily more and more. It yielded the richest fruit to the consolation and well-being of the elect. But at last Satan, prince of darkness, and the greatest foe to this wholesome light, perceiving that the ruin of his kingdom was imminent, called to action his familiar slaves. These were certainly the Franciscans.

“……some of [the Gospellers] were burnt. Jacques Pavanes began to teach the truth with such fervency of soul that he was the first to suffer death by fire in Paris. The chief ground for this punishment was his advocacy of that doctrine of the Supper which but few then recognized. Others were scourges, exposed with ignominy in a public place or sent into exile, and cast out of the kingdom itself. In a word, the enemies of the Gospel would never cease their work till all liberty to preach the truth should be taken away, till that wholesome understanding should be crushed, that lately risen light extinguished.

“……Pious men in whose souls the fear of God, along with that knowledge had found a home, saw clearly that the truth was banished from public places, as well as liberty to worship God in a simple worship. They therefore began to hold among themselves secret assemblies, following the example of the prophets under Ahab’s rule, and of those Christians who, in the infant days of the Church, were forced, by horrible persecutions to seek out hidden places of worship…….

“…….And there was continually nourished and fostered among them the hope that all France would soon receive the Gospel and throw off the impious and wicked tyranny of Antichrist. However, after long waiting, they came to see the time was still far distant when religion should be again cleansed of her impurities and that, on the other hand, the foul superstitions and abominations introduced by the Pope grew daily. Therefore, many who had kept themselves quite pure and undefiled from all idolatry of Masses, resolved in the year 1546 to establish among themselves a small and dutiful church on a certain [Strasburg/Calvin] model…..The chief authors and regulators of this undertaking were Estienne Mangin, a very good man of advanced years; and Pierre LeClerc [younger brother of the fore mentioned, Jean LeClerc], by skill and profession a carder, but exceedingly well versed in sacred literature….and was elected to be their minister…..

[Due to the large number of their congregation, they were soon discovered by informers who reported their activities to the authorities. Sixty persons of all ages and both sexes were arrested, without incident, during a worship service at Mangin’s house. Fourteen were chosen to undergo the severest of tortures to compel them to inform on their fellow adherents and supporters. These efforts proved unsuccessful. Seven had their tongues cut out before they were taken and burned alive in the great marketplace at Meaux, close to Mangin’s house.]

The ‘Heresies’ Attributed to Jacques Pavanes:

· The denial of Purgatory

· The assertion that God had no vicar

· Repudiation of excessive reliance on Church theologians

· Rejection of the customary salutation, ‘Hail Queen, Mother of Mercy!’

· Denied propriety of offering candles to the Saints

· Believed baptism to be a sign only

· Holy water was nothing

· Papal bulls and indulgences an imposture of the Devil

· The Mass of no avail for remission of sins, unprofitable to the hearer

· The Word of God is all sufficient

1572

“King Charles IX of France, under the sway of his mother, Catherine de Medici, orders the assassination of Huguenot Protestant leaders in Paris, setting off an orgy of killing that results in the massacre of tens of thousands of Huguenots all across France……Once the killing started, mobs of Catholic Parisians, apparently overcome with bloodlust, began a general massacre of Huguenots. Charles issued a royal order on August 25 to halt the killing, but his pleas went unheeded as the massacres spread. Mass slaughters continued into October, reaching the provinces of Rouen, Lyon, Bourges, Bourdeaux, and Orleans. An estimated 3,000 French Protestants were killed in Paris, and as many as 70,000 in all of France” (Source)

[N.B. The massacres of 1545 and 1572 were public knowledge. One can only imagine the unparalleled courage it took to stand up for the truth of Jesus Christ against such a cruel, brutal and inhumane foe.]

After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

To be continued…….

 

Revelation 11: The Two Witnesses - Part 14

SELECTED BELIEFS HELD BY JOHN WYCLIFFE OFFICIALLY CONDEMNED BY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

[N.B. The following is compiled from Dr. Gordon Leff, Heresies in the Latter Middle Ages, 1967, Manchester Univ. Press.]

1. That the material substance of bread and the material substance of wine remain in the Sacrament of the altar. [i.e. the Mass is a lying wonder, no transubstantiation occurs.]

3. That Christ is not in the Sacrament essentially and really, in his own corporeal presence. [i.e. the people are deceived who think they eat Christ.]

4. That if a bishop or priest be in mortal sin he does not ordain, consecrate or baptize. [The Donatists also held this precept. To this day they are considered 'heretics.']

5. That it is not taught in the Gospel that Christ ordained the Mass. [The Mass is considered a perpetual bloodless sacrifice; the Lord's Supper is a memorial of Christ's once for all finished sacrifice.]

10. That it is contrary to Holy Scripture that ecclesiastics should have possessions. [The wealth of the clergy was scandalous, as it is today with our Megachurch evangelists.]

14. That any deacon or priest may preach the word of God apart from the authority of the Apostolic See or a Catholic bishop. [Preaching is ordained by Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit. No man or denomination has exclusive rights to that office.]

21. That anyone who enters a religious order, whether those which espouse poverty or allow possessions, is rendered incapable and unfit for the performance of God's commandments. [i.e. they are more apt to commit crimes of perversion having taken an oath of celibacy.]

22. That holy men have sinned in founding religious orders. [i.e. religious orders are not of God.]

23. That the religious who live in orders are not Christians. [Even though they are religious persons.]

24. That friars are bound to gain their livelihood by the labor of their hands, and not by begging.

27. All things happen from absolute necessity. [i.e. God has predestinated every event which will infallibly come to pass.]

30. The excommunication by the pope or any other prelate is not to be feared, because it is the censure of Antichrist.

37. The Church of Rome is the synagogue of Satan; nor is the Pope the immediate and proximate Vicar of Christ and of the Apostles. [i.e. there is no salvation in the Church of Rome.]

THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE, AD 1415, CONDEMNATION OF JOHN WYCLIFFE

HIS BOOKS FORBIDDEN TO BE READ

INQUISITION CALLED TO FIND AND BURN ALL HIS WRITINGS

"The same John Wycliffe composed certain books, treatises, volumes, and small works.....these books, for the publication of his perverse doctrine, he did set forth openly for every man to read, [resulting] in great scandal, damage and peril to souls.....The most reverend fathers, the archbishops, legates of the Apostolic See did condemn them, commanding the said books be burned and forbade the reading of those which remain unburned.....And to the intent that this dangerous and most filthy doctrine should be utterly banished out of the church, [the bishop of Rome] gave commandment that diligent inquisition should be made everywhere...after all such books, treatises, volumes, and works, and that being found should be burned with fire."

[Calling Wycliffe's beliefs 'notoriously heretical', 'erroneous', 'blasphemous', 'offensive to godly ears', 'rash', 'seditious', 'unsound and unwholesome doctrine, hostile both to faith and morals', the Council continues its tirade of thunders:]

THE FAITHFUL FORBIDDEN TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES

"We forbid all faithful Christians from the reading, learning, exposition and alleging of the said books and we forbid, under pain of curse, any Christians from presuming openly to preach, teach, hold, or allege any of the said articles, except for the purpose of reprobating them; commanding all these books, treatises, volumes and works to be openly burned, as was decreed in the synod of Rome....."

THE COUNCIL BLASPHEMES WYCLIFFE WHO DWELLS IN HEAVEN - REV.13:6

HIS BODY ORDERED DISINTERRED - REV.11:9

".....the impenitency and final obstinacy of the said John Wycliffe...having been lawfully proved by evident signs and tokens made good by lawful witnesses.....This holy synod declares, determines, and gives sentence, that the same John Wycliffe was a notorious heretic, and that he died obstinate in his heresy; we curse him and condemn his memory. This synod also decrees and ordains that his body and bones, if they might be discerned from the bodies of other faithful people, should be taken out of the ground, and thrown away far from the burial of any church."

THE OFFICIAL ROMAN CATHOLIC VIEW OF WYCLIFFE TODAY: 'OXFORD SCHOLAR, REFORMER, HERETIC' (Source)

“Old-fashioned Protestant writers, who used to treat medieval heresy as a continuous witness to the truth, found in Wyclif a convenient link between the Albigenses and the sixteenth-century reformers, and the comparison is, perhaps, of interest. Like the heretics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Wyclif started with an attack on clerical wealth; he then went on to dispute the authority of the Church and, finally, its sacramental system…… Wyclif resembled the Protestant Reformers in his insistence on the Bible as the rule of faith, in the importance attributed to preaching, and in his sacramental doctrine.”

[N.B. ‘The old-fashioned Protestant writers’ were the brilliant Protestant Reformers whose arguments for separation from the Church of Rome were grounded in Scripture, from both a doctrinal and moral standpoint. They were all agreed upon the Historicist interpretation of the Revelation as the only correct view, in contradistinction from that of the Jesuits’ Preterist and Futurist views.]

NEXT: Wickliffe’s condemnation of the Friars.

 

Recently, a zealot posted a reply to another’s remark which concluded with the haughty epitaph, “And that’s THAT!”

In other words, his authoritative opinion is not to be brought into question nor examined more closely because the brilliance of his argument is undeniable and irrefutable.

I am reminded of John Wickliffe’s rebuke of the Friars of his day. (Translation by this present writer from this source.)

Cap. 45. Friars holier than other men.

“Friars, displaying an exalted Luciferian pride, insist they are more holy than all those outside their sect. This despite the fact they bind themselves to the traditions of sinful men which are full of error. Moreover, they reject the most sufficient rule of Jesus Christ who left out nothing needful. However, no matter how well priests or bishops succeed in fulfilling their God-given office, the friars allege these would be more holy still if they would only convert to their newly pretended religious tenets and rules of obedience…..

“The friars are forever boasting how their religion is superior to that which Christ delivered to His Apostles and preachers. By so doing they make themselves wiser, more enlightened and charitable than Christ, since they teach a better way to Heaven than did Christ.”